


fear is how i'll fall

by NikeScaret



Series: hellfire burns in your eyes [3]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Damian Wayne Feels, Damian Wayne is Robin, Damian is scared, Gen, Scarecrow got him, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 23:46:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10887417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NikeScaret/pseuds/NikeScaret
Summary: Fire burns, demons grin, a chant ofkill, kill, kill-Damian blinks and suddenly he's not in Gotham.





	fear is how i'll fall

**Author's Note:**

> I really like this series.
> 
> I really, really like it.
> 
> *Coughs* I know that I've just written a very long fic but inspiration struck and this is what came out of it.
> 
> Enjoy!

Damian's out and about at night, running along the rooftops with a beating heart.

What he sees is not where he is.

A scream echoes, a desperate shout, and Damian stumbles. “Shut up, shut up, _shut up!”_ Damian pleads, holding his hands over his ears.

“Damian, please!”

“I said _shut up!”_

“Dami-”

Damian whirls around and instead of looking at a stone rooftop, he sees a girl with a claw in her chest surrounded by flame.

“Dami… You promised to protect me. Why-”

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!” Damian turns and runs away, terrified.

He leaps over a river of blood that's really a gap between buildings and lands in front of a demon.

“Hello, _Damian.”_ It says, and it's hissing voice makes Damian flinch back. “Did you think you could escape?”

“Go away! I'm not there anymore, _go away!”_

It laughs and it sounds like a cacophony of agony. “Oh, don't you know?” It leans in close, and Damian's too scared to move. “We can find you anywhere.”

It grabs Damian's arms and drags him away, and Damian struggles the whole time because hell has taught him to fight.

“You-”

Metal walls rise up from the ground and Damian falls to his knees, simply staring.

“This is your punishment. The King will want to see you.” His torturer cackles, and Damian _screams,_ pounding against the metal.

“Let me out, let me out, let me-”

It's too dark.

It's too dark and too small, and blood is covering Damian's hands and clothes and fires roar outside, and all he can hear is a heartbeat.

He turns around and there.

A boy he tried to save.

A boy he was forced to kill.

He's slumped against the wall, and there's a hole in his chest, but he's still staring and shrieking.

Damian breaths hard and clenches his fists.

_You're not dead. You're alive. You're-_

A heart is being squeezed in his hand.

Damian drops it and backs up to the door, trying not to sob.

“Damian…”

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” Damian cries, voice breaking.

“Damian, you said you'd protect me. You said I wouldn't disappear.” His voice is confused and Damian wants to hug him, wants to hold his head to his chest and scare away the world.

But he can't.

Because he's dead.

“I-”

“Da _mi_ ** _an.”_ **

Damian slams a fist into the entrance behind him as the voice glitches.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.”

It's all he can seen to say and he knows that it's not _enough._

The metal disappears, and Damian's standing in the arena.

He glances up and Dick stares back at him from his place on a throne.

“Let the games begin.” Dick yells, and his smile is sick as he watches a demon get dragged out into the circle.

No.

_No._

“I-” Damian starts, ready to protest to his last breath, but then Dick laughs.

He laughs and laughs and then everyone is too and it's too loud and too much.

“You want to refuse? Now? What's his kill number?” Dick asks, and the crowd responds with, _over 100,000!_

“Damian the Murderer!” Dick says, louder than all the noise, and the audience chants the name Damian's earned in his time here.

“You can't fight back,” Dick tells him and Damian shakes and trembles in place.

“No!”

Dick's grin disappears and it's chilling as his features ripple to show Father. “Send him to the dungeons.”

Damian runs.

He doesn't _want_ the dungeons, he doesn't want to be their experiment, their victim.

Not again, and Damian's shoulder burns in memory.

The coliseum fades into a razed city  and Damian hides as guards come marching by.

_“Damian.”_

They find him.

They find him and he gives them a battle to remember, breaks their necks and drives their blades into their chests and they still get up.

Damian escapes, but they're right on his heels, and he can't hold on forever, he knows, not when he's the best killer they have.

They want him.

So they get him.

Ropes wrap around his ankles and Damian falls, swearing and trying to get away.

_“Damian.”_

_“Damian?"_

_“Damian!”_

A needle gets into his neck, and Damian stops moving, eyes glazed as the destroyed city melts into Gotham, as his capturers change into his family.

“Damian, Scarecrow got to you “ Dick says, and Damian curls up, still feeling wounds there yet not.

There's a moment of silence, and Jason asks, “Kid, what did you see?”

And Damian-

Damian answers the only way he knows how.

He laughs.

He laughs until he's in tears and he still doesn't stop, and nothing about this is funny.

But the King of Hell taught him that the best solution is laughter.

It's fucked up-

But it works.

So Damian laughs.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always loved and brighten up my day and are saved in my Gmail.
> 
> Also! Here's my [Tumblr.](http://nikescaret.tumblr.com) Come visit and chat with me if you want!


End file.
